Slack tide turning for ammo?

I just visited my LGS here in Virginia Beach and I was amazed to behold the shelves full of rifles and uppers of every description and, more amazingly, what had to be a ton of ammunition of every caliber, be it pistol and rifle.

.223 especially was plentiful with every bullet weight and brand in abundance. The cherry on top of this wonderful experience was that the ammunition was at what I would call pre-panic costs.

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c4v3man

March 20, 2013, 02:15 PM

Must have been a nice dream...

That being said, I'm seeing alot more .223 popping up for ~$.30 a round online, which is a good sign. AR's are also available from $800 on up pretty frequently.

Local walmart's still cleaned out though, of everything but the premium stuff.

Creature

March 20, 2013, 02:16 PM

I assure you, it was no 'dream'. I bought ten boxes of 223.

Queen_of_Thunder

March 20, 2013, 02:34 PM

Then drugs.

OldBrownDog

March 20, 2013, 02:45 PM

Was at my LGS/indoor range this morning to shoot. Saw 15 AR's, along with an even dozen Garands and M1A's on the rack. And all at reasonable prices - Windham Weaponry ARs were around $900 and they had a ton of ammo on the shelves. Got me a couple boxes of .45ACP and .22LR :D

Nothing at all in West Texas. I doubt you could find enough to fill one 10 round mag. My local Academy got a case of 45 and some 7.62x54R and that was it.

herkyguy

March 20, 2013, 04:31 PM

what shop in VB? I'll gladly drive the hour to get some.

ccsniper

March 20, 2013, 04:42 PM

were still pretty dry here.

19-3Ben

March 20, 2013, 04:54 PM

My LGS had a few ARs on the wall today. First time I had seen any that were available for sale since a few days after the shooting when the panic hit its peak.

I wouldn't say things were plentiful. Shelves were still pretty barren, ammo was still gone, etc... but there was definitely more than previously.

Tallen45

March 20, 2013, 04:56 PM

I was jumping for joy when I finally found a box of blazer aluminum 9mm. Ammo is nonexistent in my area.

sage5907

March 20, 2013, 05:42 PM

Had something funny happen to me today. I had been to several lgs and Academy looking for 12 & 20 guage 2 3/4 inch field loads and they have been nonexistent in my area. Today I went to a farm supply store and they had several shelves of both Winchester & Remington 2 3/4 inch shotshells in 12 & 20 guage but no 3 inch rounds. Then I happened to think, they cater to farm people and most rural people still have 2 3/4 inch chambers and that includes me! The farm supply hadn't been affected by the run on gun stores. Couldn't believe my good fortune.

Maybe things are slowly approaching some semblance of normal again. We can only hope!

StrutStopper

March 20, 2013, 08:13 PM

A LGS had a shipment of ARs that were going for pre-panic prices, but as far as ammo goes, its just like when I go fishing. People near the empty shelves tell me I should have been there yesterday, or, we had some .22's earlier... Either my luck stinks or they're lying. Regardless, I don't have much left to shoot.

mastiffhound

March 20, 2013, 08:39 PM

Queen of Thunder
Then drugs

I fear that right now drugs are probably in more abundance and easier to get than ammo. I wonder how hard aspirin is? I wonder if it would fit in my mini lathe?

Gallstones

March 20, 2013, 08:45 PM

If so, it will take some time yet before the mule trains make it to Montana.

Gallstones

March 20, 2013, 08:46 PM

I fear that right now drugs are probably in more abundance and easier to get than ammo. I wonder how hard aspirin is? I wonder if it would fit in my mini lathe?

I'd try Centrum Silver first. You can't even digest those things.

fireside44

March 20, 2013, 08:49 PM

When I see S&B and Winchester White box .308 on the shelf for under $20 I'll believe it.

Bad Andy

March 20, 2013, 09:40 PM

I was at one of my LGS today, they had plenty of ammo, 223, 5.56, 9mm, 40S&W, 45 ACP, 380, ect...plenty of it in stock and more on the way. Hopefully. Those guys say that by summer the shortage will be over and ammo will be plentiful and cheap.

Creature

March 21, 2013, 07:43 AM

Superior P&G on VB Blvd

GoWolfpack

March 21, 2013, 08:09 AM

Superior P&G on VB Blvd
Their pre-panic prices were still pretty high.

Wildbillz

March 21, 2013, 08:17 AM

Still nothing in Austin area Walmart or Acadamy. You can get all the 12ga you need and if you shoot 30-06 and 243 your in good shape but past that its go fish.

What scares me is will the thought what if the sellers have gotten so use to the demand and price that we will see little if any easing of the price for a long time. eventuly market saturation and no demand will force prices back to some sort of normal but what will that new normal look like???

WB

SaxonPig

March 21, 2013, 08:38 AM

Around here shotgun ammo never disappeared.

I look around and there is some CF ammo but no 22 LRs at all. Zip. Nada.

On Gunbroker a brick of 22s will still sell for $75-$150.

ARs and mags have come down in price.

jrdolall

March 21, 2013, 09:23 AM

Cabelas has .223 online today for $6.99 with a limit of 5. With shipping it will be about $.45 per round. Certainly not cheap but at least you can have some. I imagine it will be gone quickly. Yesterday they had affordable 9mm and it was gone in about an hour.

1KPerDay

March 21, 2013, 09:26 AM

That being said, I'm seeing alot more .223 popping up for ~$.30 a round online,Where?!?

98C5

March 21, 2013, 09:31 AM

Still tough in my area. Gander Mountain, Sportsmans Warehouse, cleared shelves. I scored 500rds of 45ACP online for $200. That will carry me for awhile....

Queen_of_Thunder

March 21, 2013, 09:46 AM

I was at one of my LGS today, they had plenty of ammo, 223, 5.56, 9mm, 40S&W, 45 ACP, 380, ect...plenty of it in stock and more on the way. Hopefully. Those guys say that by summer the shortage will be over and ammo will be plentiful and cheap.
Where?

Shanghai McCoy

March 21, 2013, 11:52 AM

West side wallymart in the "People's Republik of Lawrence",Kansass, has the same boxes of 06,270, shotgun shells and 22 ratshot that have been there for the last couple of weeks. I don't think they have ordered anything....

FitGunner

March 21, 2013, 12:15 PM

I went to Academy yesterday and was pleasantly surprised to find 100 round boxes of CCI Mini Mag 36 grain($7.49), a ton of Independence 5.56 55 grain ($10), a ton of Monarch (PPU) .223 55 grain ($6), and some Hornady hunting .223 50 grain ($20). They also had tons of .308 in 5 varieties. I think it was a fluke.

I also managed to get some Winchester Super-X 12 gauge 00-Buck for $4.79. They haven't had any buckshot in over a month. They also had Brenneke slugs.

jrdolall

March 21, 2013, 06:20 PM

Cabela's is showing the 9mm for $13.99 box FMJ. I bet it will be gone in an hour.

You need to check gunbot as often as possible as the info is constantly updated.

allaroundhunter

March 21, 2013, 06:24 PM

My local Academy had 9mm WWB 100 round packs for their usual $26/box this morning...

george shaffer

March 22, 2013, 10:33 AM

Ammunition Is Getting Scarce

This morning I lucked out and was able to buy several cases of ammo. On the way home I stopped at the gas station where a gorgeous Lady was filling up her car at the next pump.

She looked at the ammo in the back of my car and said in a very sexy voice, "I'm a big believer in barter". "Would you be interested in trading sex for ammo?"

I thought a few seconds and asked, "what kinda ammo ya got?"

Sorry couldn't help mysef, this is just to funnny not to be shared.

herkyguy

March 22, 2013, 01:45 PM

a big thanks to whoever posted the gunbot.net link. my goodness that is a great resource. i finally picked up some decent priced .223 yesterday

breakingcontact

March 22, 2013, 02:40 PM

Another good report from Academy. 9/40/45/556/308 all in stock this morning. Even at 1 box limit still nice to see.

MikeS.

March 22, 2013, 02:46 PM

How about reloading supplies? Are you seeing any/much in the way of primers, powder and bullets?

No ammo around here, yet.

r1derbike

March 22, 2013, 02:49 PM

At Walmart, I just picked-up a few days ago 6 boxes of 50 round Federal .45acp fmj. I have all the .223 I need, from purchases a year ago. They have a 3 box limit on their ammo, but you may have friends or relatives purchase ammo too, the clerk said.

However, I cannot find an SA XD(m) 9mm 3.8 compact, anywhere for my wife. The wait is killing her.

Litlman

March 22, 2013, 02:55 PM

Still short around here.

mrvco

March 22, 2013, 03:17 PM

LGS inventory around here doesn't seem to be so much of a problem now for both AR's and ammo (pistol and rifle), but the prices are still far higher than I'm willing to pay.

At least having plenty of inventory on-hand is a step back towards stability. None of this stuff was flying off the shelves at these prices.

c4v3man

March 22, 2013, 03:22 PM

Some prices that stood out for me this week at my LGS's:

550 round value pack 22LR - $150

I'm not in the "people shouldn't be allowed to resell ammo for more money" anti-capitalist camp, but I would never visit a shop that was charging that much for a $25 box of ammo. Scarcity or not, that's just an insult to intelligent customers.

AlbertH

March 22, 2013, 04:48 PM

My grandson is in the young marine program and they are having a father/son rifle shoot, the only catch is it needs to be a military style weapon.

That's find and dandy for the boy since he has a AR15 style 22lr but dad was SOL so he decided to make a cal to MA and see if he could borrow the rifle that Grandpa brought back from Europe at the end of WWII with him. Of course Mom couldn't say no so she took the battle worn Lee Enfield No.4 to the gun shop this morning to be cleaned up, checked out, and test fired. They had one box of 303 British in stock, the price was steep but we needed it send with the gun.

When her oldest was having trouble finding ammo locally, I decided to check online and found that Cabela's had some in stock and at under a buck a round so I put an order in and should have three boxes by the end of the month.

It is amazing what some of us will do for our kids!!

The long and short of it is, check out Cabella's if your in need of some of the rather uncommon ammo, it seems as though the mad rush for it is finally ending.

Al

Gun Geezer

March 23, 2013, 07:58 AM

The Academy here has had ZERO pistol or rimfire ammo for over 4-weeks. None being recevied for stock so none to sell.

Walmart has had a trickle, but very minor trickle at that.

I stocked up before w/2000 rounds in each caliber. Even had 8000 rounds of 22 LR and had no idea I had that much.

Time to get down to some serious long term storage.

ol' scratch

March 23, 2013, 09:21 AM

I have experenced the same. I picked up 1100 rounds of .22 Long and some more mags for the AR (not that I really need more of those; but hey why not?) and some mags for the FAL. I paid pre-panic prices for all of it except the AR mags. They were $3 higher than a few months back. I also ordered some once fired 7.62 x 51 Nato brass that my wife informed me has arrived. Now I just need the .308 bullets I backordered and some gun powder and I will be good to go.

Killian

March 23, 2013, 02:05 PM

The long and short of it is, check out Cabella's if your in need of some of the rather uncommon ammo, it seems as though the mad rush for it is finally ending.

Al

I'm not sure that finding some boxes of .303 demonstrates that ammo availability is on the increase for other more common calibers. If I had wanted 9mm Largo ammunition, I could have bought all I wanted for nearly the same price as it was before the panic all during this period. More "commonly used" calibers could be a while catching up. More obscure calibers might end up being stocked faster because demand for them is lower.

frankenstein406

March 23, 2013, 02:12 PM

Seems like more remington ammo is popping up.

breakingcontact

March 23, 2013, 02:17 PM

I swear some shops and people price ammo/guns so ridiculously high just hoping someone will bite but more so just to show what they have and you don't.

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